Bishop William D. Persell will be preacher and presider tonight, Wednesday May 4 at 7pm at Holy Innocents for a special service in celebration of Ascension Eve. The service is hosted jointly by Holy Innocents, St Columba of Iona, and the Church of the Incarnation.

Dessert will be served downstairs in the Undercroft (church hall) afterwards. Please join us tonight in welcoming the bishop to our communities!

For more information on Bishop Persell, see the his bio on the diocesan website.

Readings for Ascension Day, BCP

There are several choices for readings for Ascension Day. Bishop Persell will even have 2 choices for Collects:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

or this

Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind there ascend, and with him continually dwell; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Whichever he chooses, it will be a memorable service. Don’t forget to bring desserts to share.

Seen in the comments section of “Father Jake Stops The World:”

It is a truism that 20% of the membership does 80% of the work of a parish. If this is so, even roughly speaking, then it stands to reason that the key statistic is not how many show up on Sunday, but how many are active. “The ministers of the church,” the Catechism says, “are laypeople, bishops, priests and deacons” (ECUSA BCP [1979], p. 855). This simple statement makes it clear that the work of the church belongs to the laity. The clergy are there to help the laity do that work.

What this means is that the primary function of a parish is to be a community of ministering people. It starts with offering worship on Sunday, “the work of the people,” which is what “liturgy” means. The ability to offer regular Sunday worship is the sine qua non of every church. This is so fundamental that we often overlook it. New missions, and the tiny churches that dot the nation, however, understand it well.

But the work of the people is much more than that. Each one of us has a speaking part in God’s drama of salvation. The meaning of a Christian’s life is to discover that role, accept it, and learn to employ the specific gifts of the Holy Spirit in accomplishing that work. This means of course being part of the ministry of the local congregation.

Each congregation is therefore a seedbed?a “seminary”?for the individual ministries of each member. Those congregations that claim this as their primary role will succeed in helping birth the vocations of their members. The consequences of this will be enormous. First of all, the negativity of being a static or declining church will disappear, as well as the “category envy” (“we wanna be a corporate parish!”) that all too often infest the thinking of parochial leadership. The higher the percentage of members who have claimed their ministry, the more joy a congregation will experience being who they are, rather than wishing they were another bigger, richer parish (Eph. 4:16). – Anglicans Online Essays | The True Measure of a Successful Parish, by Pierre W. Whalon

This enlarges on themes and topics that are being kicked around in our diocese, and adds new food for thought as well.